The people traveling abroad currently are mostly absolute idiots.

Exactly the kind that will break mandatory isolation and are way more likely to have an ongoing covid infection than a random person from the general population, due to overall careless behaviour.

The sensible people are all waiting in their homes.

So yes, I guess the border guard you spoke to has had to endure tantrums from these people on a daily basis

It's my impression that Europe has been a little bit more relaxed than "only idiots are traveling". It's only now that the numbers are rising again that they're again putting increased measures in place.

Yes, it's correct, it was possible to travel between EU countries during the whole summer without that much restrictions (some places required a quarantine of 14 days, but others didn't). The number of identified cases only started to rise again in central Europe around mid August.

Why do you think there is a magical virus barrier at the border?

It does not matter if you travel to the next city or to the country nearby. Yes, there are clusters but at least in Europe we do not have vast empty areas between populated places. It is pretty much a continuum.

Travel creates new unidentified clusters, the tourists also tend to leave the area rather quickly => very hard to find and trace who originally caused the cluster, and who were in contact.

Tourists also tend to have much different riskier behaviour compared to the average native inhabitant of a city (eg nightclub hopping many days in a row)

If you're travelling a short distance over a mostly open land border then sure. If you're flying somewhere then it's a different story.

There isn't a magical virus barrier at the border. But there's a jurisdictional barrier there. Contact tracing across the border is much more painful than doing it locally. Our civilization-level immune system is bureaucratic in nature, so you can say that national border is a barrier for its antibodies.

> I do wonder how many people are becoming unreasonable in situations like this.

Pushback on masks or any type of covid-altered behavior is not limited to "walmart meltdown" youtube social shame videos.

While it has been walked back, poll workers in a Missouri county were told: "You may act surprised that you don’t have a face mask on properly and then apologize as you put the mask on,” “Wear your mask correctly until the voter leaves the polling place. Please do this every time a voter says something to you.”

[1] https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/516943-st-...

> I do wonder how many people are becoming unreasonable in situations like this.

Would be an interesting stat. I would hope not that many but expect a large population given they'd be people who have elected to take short-term vacations in foreign country during a pandemic, they'd either be very self-centered or not very bright.

My wife worked with fashion models before covid, and as one would expect - they aren't the brightest people out there, and sure enough, cheap plane tickets! woohoo! - they go off to mexico, europe, wherever and post photos to instagram of them partying it up without masks, and sure enough, they got covid. And this is why my wife had to quit in March, because she knows how idiotic, selfish and reckless those people can be.